Grace
by 2much3time
Summary: After interviewing a woman who was brutally attacked Benson and Stabler are left with a distinct feeling of deja vu. Have they met this woman somewhere before..? NOT E/O
1. Chapter 1

AN: Tweaked a little bit and now reposting, don't know if this'll affect me reviews. Still the same story (pretty much) just slightly wordier, lol.

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**Grace**

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'What have we got?'

Detective Olivia Benson had been called to Mercy Hospital at the ungodly hour of 6AM and was in the process of polishing off a large cup of coffee, trying to banish the last vestiges of sleep as the uniformed policeman filled her in. The staff hurrying back and forth along the corridor looked even worse than she felt: by all accounts it had been a busy night.

'Someone called a bus out to X Street just before five after a woman nearly got run over by a cab driver. She was unconscious when they picked her up but she came round in the emergency room and starting freaking out, wouldn't let anyone touch her.'

'Classic sign of rape trauma,' said Olivia, negotiating her way round a gurney travelling in the opposite direction.

'Yeah, well, they had to sedate her in the end just so they could get a proper look at her. That was when they told me to call you guys in.'

Olivia thought that Officer Patrick suddenly looked very young and inexperienced as he ran his fingers through his hair a little shakily.

'Who called the bus?' she asked, throwing her now empty cup in the bin and pulling out her notepad.

'Cab driver,' he supplied, catching the pull-yourself-together look she was shooting him. 'John Whitny.'

'Have you spoken with him yet?'

He looked startled at the idea. 'No, Ma'am, I came straight here.'

Olivia nodded. 'Did she say anything in the ER?'

'Nothing.'

'No permission for a rape-kit then,' said Olivia, suppressing a sigh. 'I'll need to speak to the medics who treated her, and have we got a next of kin?'

'Not yet but I've got the bus-techs and nurses names for you here,' he said, handing over a loose piece of paper and looking relieved at having been able to provide something useful.

'Okay,' she said. 'Gather up her clothes and take them to the lab,' she ordered, sensing his eagerness to do something useful, and pulled out her cell-phone to call her partner.

'I'm on my way,' Stabler said immediately upon answering the phone, sounding stressed. 'Traffic's a bitch.'

'I know, I just got here myself. I'm going to speak to the attending now.'

'Yeah, I'll see you soon.'

* * *

It was half an hour before Detective Stabler arrived, by which time Olivia was ready to question the victim. 'So what's the story so far?' he asked.

'Young woman, mid-twenties, brought in this morning seven shades of black and blue: three cracked ribs, bites, contusions, hairline skull fracture not to mention vaginal and anal tearing. Someone really worked her over, we could be looking at more than one perp. Cabbie found her on X Street around five and called it in.'

'Have you spoken to her yet?'

'Just about to,' she said, nodding towards a blinded door a few feet away.

They knocked before entering, Olivia pulling out her badge. Their victim watched them warily if a little blearily as they approached the bed, apparently still trying to shake off the sedative they'd administered in the ER.

Olivia had to work not to wince at the violent bruises discolouring the girl's face and neck. A gauze dressing disappeared into the collar of the hospital gown but the sheets pulled up to her chest obscured the rest of her injuries. Her dark hair had been pulled back in a messy ponytail.

'Hi, I'm Detective Olivia Benson, this is my partner Elliot Stabler, we're from the Special Victims Unit: can you tell us your name?'

She studied the badge for a moment without really seeming to see it. Nothing seemed real. 'It's Grace, Grace Harringdon. Was Kevin brought here too?'

Benson and Stabler glanced at each other. 'Kevin who?' asked Elliot, notepad out.

'Kevin Green, we were together last night - isn't he here, too?' she asked, looking panicked. 'Oh my god, what if he's still out there? What if nobody found him yet?' She grimaced suddenly, clutching her ribs through the sheets.

'Easy, easy,' said Olivia, frowning a little. 'You need to tell us what happened.'

She swallowed, taking shallow breaths. 'We were walking home when these guys started shouting out of a car window. Kevin told them where to go and they stopped the car and -- and they just attacked him. I tried to stop them but they just -- I couldn't --'

'Can you remember where you were?' interrupted Olivia.

'We were walking home from this café Kevin knew, we were only a block from home, I don't know…' she said, tears in her eyes.

'What time was that?' asked Elliot.

'I'm not sure, one, maybe two o'clock?'

He nodded, 'I'll go make a call.' He pulled open the door again and Grace turned her face away from the light, busy corridor beyond as if it hurt her eyes.

'Okay, Grace,' said Olivia, drawing a stool up to the bed, 'it's important for us to do a rape-kit as soon as possible.'

'Is that really necessary?' she asked, looking unsure. 'Can't you just get them for what they did to Kevin?'

'We want to get them for what they did to _you_,' said Olivia firmly. 'I'll be with you the whole time.'

What little colour there was left in Grace's face seemed to drain away and her voice was barely there when she confessed, 'I'm not sure I can do this.'

'Is there someone we can call for you?' asked Olivia, in hopes that a familiar face might help bolster her courage. 'A family member?'

Grace wavered for a moment, not sure whether that would make things better or worse. 'You could call Katya for me, Katya Howard, I'll need some clean clothes. She's the only one who can get into my apartment.'

'Is she your room-mate?'

'No, just a friend. I don't know that many people,' she qualified, not looking at Olivia.

'Okay, do you know her number?' she asked, jotting it down when she did. 'I'll just be a sec,' she said, stepping out into the corridor.

Stabler was stood a little way off with his cell-phone stuck to his ear and a bored expression on his face. 'They've got me on hold,' he said as Olivia tore off the top page of her notebook and handed it to him.

'I need you to call Katya Howard, ask her to pack a bag for Grace. Have you seen the doctor? We need to get this rape-kit done before she loses her nerve,' said Benson, scanning the nurses station for a white coat.

'I'll flag him down next time he comes by,' promised Elliot.

Olivia nodded, 'Thanks. See you back in there.'

Grace hadn't moved except to twist the sheet in her hands. Benson gave her an encouraging smile as she retook her seat. 'I need you to tell me what happened last night,' she said gently. 'Where did you go?'

'We were out on a date, dinner and a show, you know, the whole cliché,' she said, voice low but clear. 'We stopped for ice cream on the way home, Marlon's, Marlow's, something like that, I'm not sure.'

'That's okay,' said Olivia. 'Where did you go next?'

'We were only two blocks from my building and it was such a mild night, we thought it would be silly to take a cab…' she shook her head. 'Stupid not to.' She shook her head again, trying not to let those thoughts hold her hostage. Shoulda woulda coulda. She cleared her throat. 'We were almost to Nth Street when this car full of kids started following us.'

'Can you describe the car?'

'Uh, white, four doors, it looked like it was ready for the scrap yard. It was dirty, one of the doors was different colour, it was dark.'

'The door was dark?' clarified Olivia.

'Yeah, dark blue, maybe green,' said Grace, sounding frustrated at her own lack of detail.

Olivia nodded, scribbling away, 'Okay. You said the occupants of the car were young?'

'Yeah, I thought maybe they were college students, late teens, early twenties.'

'Did you see how many there were?'

She shook her head, 'I'm not sure, three or four, I was trying to ignore them, I thought they were just drunk, you know. They were shouting, cat-calling, one of them asked Kevin "How much for a go on your girlfriend?" and he told them to get lost. And then they stopped the car and they - they -' she took a steadying breath. 'One of them hit him and Kevin hit him back but then the others started in and I screamed and I _tried_ to stop them but I got knocked down and I hit my head and there was nothing I could do!' she said in a sudden rush.

'It's okay, you're safe now and we're going to find out what happened to Kevin. This isn't your fault, Grace,' Benson assured her, squeezing her hand. 'We're gonna catch the guys who did this, with your help.'

Grace nodded, pulling her hand away, 'Yeah, I'm s-sorry, I know…'

Olivia looked down at the hand Grace was now trying to conceal under the bed sheets: three of the fingers were missing, but not recently. Grace was obviously sensitive about it and Olivia didn't see any reason to pursue it so she moved on, though it bothered her somehow.

'Can I get you a glass of water before we carry on?' she asked.

'No, thank you, I'm fine. Let's just get this over with,' she said determinedly.

Olivia nodded understandingly. 'What happened after you got knocked down?'

'I'm not sure, I was kind of out of it for a while - the concussion - but I, um, remember being in the trunk of the car and we were moving. I could hear them laughing. And then the car stopped and the engine went off and they pulled me out of the trunk - and they - they, um…' she rubbed at the lump in her throat, eyes welling up. 'They f-forced me facedown on the back seat and I kicked and struggled and s-screamed and they just _laughed_… And one of them kicked me between the legs from behind while another one pinned me from the other side of the car, and I couldn't breathe where he was pressing my face down into the seat-'

It looked to Olivia as if she having trouble breathing _now_. 'Take your time,' she advised.

There was a knock at the door and Grace jumped a mile before recognising Detective Stabler. 'There was a call from an apartment on Nth street at 01:21 last night. They found Kevin beaten in an alley - he's alive,' he said, pre-empting Grace's interruption. 'They took him to New York Presbyterian. He's pretty banged up but he's stable.'

'Thank god,' Grace sighed.

'Fin and Munch are gonna interview the woman who called it in now.'

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R&R!

Thanx,

2much


	2. Chapter 2

AN: also tweaked a tad!

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:Part two:

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'Are we done yet? I just want to go home,' said Grace, clearly exhausted but fighting it all the way. She'd been getting more agitated as the interview wore on.

'You can't go home, Grace, look at the state of you!' admonished Katya Howard, who had arrived only moments ago. She was at least twenty years older than Grace and gave off an aura of authority in her tailor-made charcoal suit, her blonde hair pulled up in a French twist, though now she looked pale and shaken.

'I can't stay here,' argued Grace, closing her eyes, the muscles in her jaw working. 'I won't feel safe till I'm back in my own apartment.'

'Grace -'

'Please,' she begged, tears in her eyes as she supplicated herself to Olivia, the only person she'd kept eye-contact with for longer than three seconds. 'I just … I don't think I can take anymore.'

'I know you're tired,' said Olivia, 'and you've been really brave. We just need you to hang in there a little longer, okay? And then we'll talk to the doctors about how long you need to stay.'

'_No_. We finish this and then I get to go home,' Grace's face hardened like a child about to throw a fit.

'Grace you've got three cracked ribs and a fractured skull, you need to let the doctors take care of you,' reasoned Elliot.

'You can't keep me here,' she said, moving as if to sit up but instantly regretting it and clutching her ribs, whimpering in pain. 'Oh god, I think I'm gonna be sick.'

Katya had a cardboard sick bowl under Grace's nose scant seconds before she threw up, trying to hold her hair back with the other hand. The two detectives looked on with sympathy and concern: maybe they should take a break, let Grace rest a while - if they could persuade her to it.

Olivia looked at Elliot and knew he was thinking the same thing. Meanwhile Grace was red in the face with suppressed pain but thankfully done vomiting.

'Listen, we're going to go now and give you a chance to rest. We'll be back to talk to you again a little later,' said Olivia, though Grace was still looking mutinous.

'Here's my card if you need anything,' said Katya. 'Send the doctor in on your way out, will you?'

'We will,' they nodded, stepping out into the corridor.

'Is it just me or does that girl look really familiar?' said Stabler as soon as the door was closed.

'It's hard to tell under all those bruises,' said Olivia, stopping at the nurses station. 'Room 113 needs some pain-relief.'

A middle-aged nurse in pink scrubs acknowledged her with a nod, 'I'll grab the doctor first chance.'

'Thanks.'

'I don't know, even the hospital bed seems kind of familiar - it's like I've been here before,' he said, hitting the button for the lift.

'Did you see her hand?'

'No, she kept them under the sheets the entire time,' he said, realising this for the first time.

'There were a couple of fingers missing, frostbite maybe.'

'You didn't ask?'

'It wasn't relevant,' she said, a little defensively. 'Must have happened years ago.'

He cast her a sidelong glance. 'Somebody skipped breakfast,' he said, trying to smother a smile as they stepped onto the elevator.

'Yeah, well, I think I'm glad I did.'

The smile slipped off Elliot's face, 'Yeah,' he said, punching the button with a sigh.

* * *

Olivia started writing up the sixty-one as soon as she was seated at her desk with another enormous cup of coffee in front of her. As usual, her partner was nowhere to be seen when there was paperwork to be done and Munch and Fin had gone to speak to the cab driver who had picked up their vic.

'What have we got?' asked Cragen, strolling out of his office. Olivia had that 80% determined, 20% pissed look that was so endearingly familiar as her fingers clacked across the keyboard.

'Twenty-four year old victim. Three or four perps beat up her boyfriend, grabbed her up off the street and then stuffed her in the trunk of their car. They drove her to some deserted underpass and gang-raped her for nearly four hours,' she said, the flash of anger in her eye belying the calmness with which she said it.

'Were you able to get descriptions?' he asked, frowning as he picked up the forensic photographs that had been taken at the hospital and had just arrived on Elliot's desk.

'One was blonde, maybe 6"1, lean, clean-shaven, wearing jeans and a red sweatshirt, late teens to early twenties. He was the only one she got a good look at.'

'What about the boyfriend?'

'He's in intensive care at NY Presbyterian, I doubt we'll be questioning him anytime soon,' said Olivia, sounding slightly frustrated, still tapping away at her report. The faster she finished the faster she could hit the streets and start tracking down these predators.

Cragen was squinting at the photos thoughtfully. 'You know, I think I've -'

'Seen her somewhere before?' asked Olivia, pausing momentarily. 'Elliot said the same thing,' she said curiously.

'Where is Elliot, anyway?' he asked, still trying to place Grace Harringdon's face.

Olivia shrugged, 'He was around twenty minutes ago,' she said helpfully.

'You know, I think I remember a case - must have been eight, nine years ago,' he said, tapping the photo in his hand. 'Teenage girl fished out of the Hudson -'

'It was ten years ago,' corrected Elliot, strolling out of the records room with a thin file in his hand.

'You found her?' asked Olivia, getting up to read over his shoulder. She didn't recognise the photo clipped at the top. 'I don't remember this case,' she said bemusedly.

'I think you were out sick that week, I worked it with Munch - not that there was much to work,' he said, handing her the papers.

'She refused to make a statement?' she asked, flipping the page.

'If I remember correctly, she never talked at all. We had no idea who she was,' said Cragen, shaking his head slightly.

'She just landed in the river one night. Luckily a boat saw her and got her out of the water pretty quick but she was in a bad way.'

'The doctor's report says there were lacerations to her hands that got infected-'

'That's the Hudson for you,' said Elliot.

'- they were forced to amputate five fingers,' she said, grimacing. 'Drug-tests showed ketamine in her system and a medical examination showed a history of physical abuse and that she had recently _given birth?_ How old was this girl?'

'Fourteen,' answered Stabler, grimly.

'There were no missing person reports?'

'Not matching our girl.'

'So what happened to her?' asked Olivia.

'Last I heard she was taken to a psychiatric hospital. I went back there once a month for six months and she never said a word. Not one word. Thing is, nobody knew if she was mute _before_.'

'She's not mute anymore,' said Olivia, looking meaningfully at her partner. 'And we've got a name.'

'Do I have to remind you that you're meant to be investigating what happened last night, not a decade ago?' said Cragen, handing them the hospital photos he was still holding.

Olivia bit her lip, knowing he was probably right. She nodded reluctantly.

But that didn't mean she wasn't going to come back to it the minute this case was over and, by the looks of it, her partner felt the same way. She went back to writing her report, more determined than ever.

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As ever! R&R! Please!

2much


	3. Chapter 3

**Grace: Part 3**

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By the time Munch and Fin arrived back at the House Cragen and Elliot had put everything they knew so far up on the board and Olivia was filing the sixty-one. Munch put a box of sandwiches on Stabler's desk, 'Lunch's up.'

'What did you get from the caller and cab driver?' Elliot asked without preamble, twisting the board marker in his hands. Despite telling Benson that there had been nothing else they could do to help Grace, all the things that had bothered him back then still bothered him: Why hadn't anyone been looking for this girl? Where were her parents? What had happened to her baby?

What had she been through?

She was the same age as Maureen and she'd had no one. Why hadn't he checked in on her every once in a while? And now here she was again. He was almost as pissed at himself as Olivia.

Fin looked to Cragen who in turn looked at the board, where there were half a dozen pictures of their victim. Her almost black hair fell in limp waves to her shoulders, framing a too-pale face where the purpling bruises didn't mottle her complexion. One eye was almost swollen shut while the other was as large and brown as a startled deer's. There was also bruising on her neck, upper arms, thighs and back; grazes on her knees and stomach and bite-marks to her shoulders.

Munch wandered closer to the pictures, concentrating on the face. 'Isn't that-?'

'Grace Harringdon,' said Stabler. 'And, yes, she is the girl they fished out of the river ten years ago.'

'But can we focus on the here and now, please,' said Cragen when Munch opened his mouth to question further.

'Sure thing, captain,' he nodded and Stabler admired his ability to compartmentalise. 'Mrs Waterman, the woman who called it in, heard a woman screaming "sometime after one"; she looks out her window and sees three guys beating up a fourth-'

'Kevin Green,' supplied Olivia.

'-and a girl passed out on the sidewalk - Grace Harringdon. So she calls the cops and while she's waiting for them to arrive she sees two of them pick up the girl and bundle her into the trunk of a white car before heading north on Nth street.'

'Did she get the license plate?' asked Cragen, stepping out of the way as Munch stuck a tack into the map where Grace and Kevin had been attacked.

'No such luck,' said Fin. 'And she was up on the 4th floor so she didn't get a good look at them either.'

'What about the cab-driver?'

'Couldn't tell us much: he was driving down M street when he saw our victim in the middle of the road, here,' said Munch, sticking another pin in the map, seven blocks away from the last, 'coming from this direction.'

'Okay, Grace said they took her to an underpass or something, she remembers seeing lots of concrete - is there anything like that near there?' said Olivia.

'Yeah, looks like she could have been in this area,' said Munch, pointing to an area of crossroads.

'Good,' said Cragen. 'You and Fin go check it out, call in CSU if you find anything,' he ordered. They both grabbed a sandwich to go and left again.

'Captain, I think we should canvas the businesses on this street,' suggested Elliot, pointing to the map. 'With any luck one will have had a camera with at least a partial view of the road. We might be able to get a plate number.'

'Do it,' agreed Cragen, watching them pull on their coats and disappear out the door before picking up Grace's old file from Olivia's desk and taking it back to his office to work on.

* * *

Benson and Stabler had gotten lucky at a small convenience store which had put up several cameras after being robbed for a fourth time, including one focussed on the street. They just hoped their perp's car hadn't taken an alternative route to reach the underpass.

Stabler looked across at his partner, who had been unusually pensive since they'd left the station. 'You alright?' he asked.

'I'm fine,' Olivia answered, gazing out of the passenger window. While she didn't sound angry, neither did she sound particularly disposed to speak to him.

'Listen, you were right,' he said, sighing. 'I should have checked up on her.'

'Yeah, you should,' she agreed, looking at him.

He shrugged, 'You know what it's like: you run into a wall and other cases start taking precedent.'

Olivia's demeanor softened. 'I just can't help wondering what happened to her before she got to that bridge. What was a teenage mother doing with tranquilisers in her system?'

'Maybe she used it during labour, to ease the pain,' suggested Elliot, glad that she was talking to him again. 'She didn't have it in hospital, we checked, and if she was living on the streets it wouldn't be hard to get hold of.'

'If she was living on the streets?'

'Well you'd think people would remember seeing a heavily pregnant girl in the shelters, and we had uniforms canvassing all of them, but nothing.'

'You think she was staying with someone? Still at home?'

'Which might explain why she was never reported missing. What if the baby didn't make it and whoever was with her panics, goes out to get rid of the evidence and when he gets back the girl is gone?' he theorised.

'Maybe now Grace will be able to tell us the answers herself,' said Olivia, unbuckling her seatbelt as they pulled up to the station.

'Hopefully we've got something here,' said Elliot, grabbing the security DVDs off the back seat.

Olivia looked at her watch, 'We should have time to go through them before we go back to finish questioning Grace.'

* * *

'There!' said Olivia, sitting up excitedly only to slump back again a moment later. Just another yellow cab, difficult to distinguish from the white in the yellow lamplight.

Elliot sat with his chin on his palm, intent on the image as it began to move again.

'Anything yet?' asked Cragen, seeming to materialise out of thin air behind them.

'Not yet. What about Fin and Munch? They got anything?' asked Elliot.

'They think they might have found the crime scene, they found a woman's purse. CSU are there now. See if Miss Harringdon can identify it.'

'We were going to go back to the hospital once we finish here,' nodded Olivia, sitting up again as Elliot paused the video on a white four-door car. 'See the door? Can you get the number plate?'

'Hang on a sec,' said Elliot, jabbing the remote so that the video jumped back a couple of frames. 'What is that? H - W - C …'

'1 - E - F,' finished Olivia, jotting it down triumphantly.

'Gotcha now, you sons of bitches. I'll check it out,' said Elliot, plucking the piece of paper out of Olivia's hand.

'Good work,' said Cragen, as Olivia set the tape in motion again, just in case there was more than one crappy white four-door cruising down Z Street at one-thirty in the morning.

'I hope so,' she said, slowing it down to half speed.

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AN: Sorry, I know this is shoddy, shoddy work but I'm having trouble writing at all at the moment. But we must keep endeavouring, mustn't we? Thanks for reading, _please_ review, help me get my mojo back!

2much


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